1. Teaching Garage Hosts
Innovation in Education Conference in NYC
BY Marina Adario
Business Development and outreach Specialist
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Teaching Garage, the creator of
Design SySTEM, the first and only
digital engineering curriculum for
elementary school teachers and stu-
dents, held a conference promoting
innovation in the classroom on June
11, 2015. The Innovation in Edu-
cation Conference was held in the
New York City office of Latham &
Watkins LLP. Speakers at the con-
ference included a variety of brilliant
educators and entrepreneurs along
with Keynote Speaker Joel Klein, the
former NYC Chancellor of Educa-
tion and current CEO of Amplify.
These speakers were organized into
three panels: the Industry, Policy,
and Creativity Panels. Each focused
on a different aspect of education.
Moderators for each panel prompt-
ed conversation about the impor-
tance of innovation in the class-
room along with discussion about
challenges and potential solutions.
After an introduction to the
conference from Edwina Tom,
the Vice President of Busi-
ness Development for Teaching
Garage, the honorable Joel Klein
made his keynote speech in which
he noted, “There’s something
about education that resists inno-
vation, and if we can’t wrap our
heads around that, then we can’t be-
gin to fix the problem.” This is an
idea that resurfaced throughout the
conference as panelists discussed
potential obstacles associated with
bringing new and creative techniques
to the classroom. Lisa Nielsen, Di-
rector of Digital Engagement &
Professional Learning for the NYC
Department of Education, argued
that “standardization is the road-
block to innovation.” In addition,
Richard Achee, the Strategic Part-
ner Manager for Google for Educa-
tion, pointed out, “The typical way
of making improvements is by in-
cremental improvements.” By fixing
problems incrementally, Achee ar-
gued, we miss out on the much more
significant improvements that could
result from implementing completely
new ideas. He emphasized this point
by using the analogy of improving a
car. Achee stated, “If I want to make
something ten times better, improv-
ing the seatbelt isn’t going to work.
Let’s make the car drive itself.” Alex
Torpey, the former mayor of South
Orange, New Jersey, added, “You see
teachers cutting programs that are
not core programs because they are
not standardized- tested even though
they may be more important,” im-
plying that the pressure on teachers
to prepare their students to do well
on standardized tests has become
a major hindrance to innovation.
As Joel Klein mentioned in his
keynote speech, the field of edu-
cation “is a field desperately ripe
for innovation, for creativity.” Each
of the speakers felt strongly about
the importance of implementing in-
novative ideas into education, spark-
ing much discussion about how ex-
actly to overcome these roadblocks.
Ellen Bialo, Co-Founder of Interac-
tive Education Systems Design, who
moderated the indus-
try panel, stated, “Un-
less [innovation] be-
comes a culture in our
schools, I can’t imag-
ine how what we all
fantasize about is ever
going to happen.”
Scott Kinney, Senior Vice President
at Discovery Education, stated, “We
really do know a lot about what good
teaching and learning looks like [...]
The question is then, ‘How do we
apply that knowledge at a system
level and in a way that is efficient?’”
Furthermore, as Christopher Lohse,
Vice President of Government Af-
fairs at Renaissance Learning, point-
ed out, “Our fundamental challenge
is that we have concentrated the stu-
dents with the greatest challenges
in single schools.” The major chal-
lenge, according to the panelists,
seems to be not only coming up with
innovative ideas, but also the system-
wide implementation of these ideas.
Another topic of discussion
throughout the conference was the
importance of technology in the
classroom. In a discussion on the
policy panel moderated by Andrew
Arenge, Assistant Producer at Edu-
cation Nation of NBC News, Lisa
Nielsen discussed the possibilities
that are unleashed through the use
of technology. Nielsen stated, “We
are empowering kids to break down
the walls of the classroom and inter-
act with the world, which is some-
thing that could never happen with
paper.” Nielsen further emphasized
the importance of changing our
views about the role of technology
in the classroom, arguing, “Tech-
nological devices are
no longer weapons
of mass distraction
but instead encour-
age engagement.” Jea-
nette Duffy, the Cause
Platforms Manager at
UNICEF Ventures,
also sees technology as a critical
part of education, stating, “Students
who don’t have that organic oppor-
tunity to be introduced to technol-
ogy are really at a disadvantage to
other students.” Adam Fried, Su-
perintendent of Harrington Park
School District in New Jersey, fur-
ther noted, “You’re going to see kids
working on laptops, you’re going
to see kids working on hard pa-
per, and that’s the balance we need
to find. It’s not an all-or-nothing
kind of thing.” Each of the panel-
ists seemed to agree that technol-
ogy can be very beneficial in educa-
tion if the proper balance is found.
Janice Chong, the Founder and
CEO of Teaching Garage, spoke
on the Creativity Panel. This panel
was moderated by Stephanie Lo,
Director of Programs at TED-Ed.
In speaking about the work she
has done with Teaching Garage,
she said, “I realized that STEM
is the perfect way to teach kids
empowerment, to not care what
their peers thought was cool and was
not cool, and to aim to achieve more
than what is around them.” She was
passionate about the importance
of introducing students to STEM
at a young age, expressing, “We’re
impacting kids and we’re impact-
ing the future. Curriculum develop-
ment has the power of changing the
classroom experience.” Also on the
Creativity Panel was Jae Gardner,
Founder of The Ivy Key. Gardner
also emphasized the importance
of inspiring students and helping
them to relate the things that they
have learned in the classroom to the
real world, stating, “It’s not about
2+2=4, it’s about how it’s there in
the world, how it’s there in my life.”
Another panelist was Kobi Yama-
da, author of children’s book, What
Do You Do With an Idea? During a
discussion on the Industry Panel
about the importance of innovation
and new ideas, Kobi inspired the
audience by saying, “The best ideas
are the ones that move from your
head to your heart, the ones that
you really fall in love with.” At the
end of the conference, Kobi gener-
ously gifted a copy of his book to
each audience member and panelist.
In addition to the engaging pan-
elist discussions, the conference fea-
tured two presentations by teams of
fifth grade students from St. Eliza-
beth Catholic Academy. The stu-
dents, primarily from Brooklyn and
Queens, presented their ideas for so-
cial entrepreneurship initiatives. One
team presented an app that they had
created called At My Business Bank.
The app was designed to teach us-
ers about financial literacy in a fun
and engaging way. The other team
presented a website, called Stress
Press, Inc., which fostered an on-
line community to help youth deal
with stress. Both teams of students
were passionate about the causes
for which they created these proj-
ects and were enthusiastic to share
their ideas with potential mentors.
Joseph Sawe, St. Elizabeth Cath-
olic Academy’s Board Chair and en-
trepreneur, wrapped up the confer-
ence with the following thoughts:
“Everything went so well because of
the incredibly well-organized team
at Teaching Garage, the kind hos-
pitality of Latham & Watkins LLP,
the thoroughly interesting speak-
ers, and the well-moderated panels.
It was wonderful and heartwarming
to see the passion, creativity, and
maturity of the middle school stu-
dents presenting their social causes.”
“There’s something about education that resists
innovation, and if we cannot wrap our heads around
that, then we cannot begin to fix the problem.”
— Joel Klein, Former NYC Chancellor of Education
and CEO of Amplify
To find out more about
Teaching Garage and
the Design SySTEM
curriculum for elementary
school teachers and
students, please email
contact@teachinggarage.com
“The best ideas are the
ones that move from your
head to your heart, the
ones that you really fall in
love with.”
— Kobi Yamada, Author
of What Do You Do With
An Idea?
www.teachinggarage.com
“We’re impacting kids and
we’re impacting the future.”
— Janice Chong, CEO of
Teaching Garage
August 2015